Most of us have bought a PowerBall ticket before, and imagined what we would do if we were to win that life-changing amount of money, while deep down understanding the odds of cashing in are slim, to say the least.

Over the past two offseasons, the Denver Broncos have found themselves in a similar conundrum with fledgling quarterback Drew Lock, whose continued character struggles and inability to perform like an NFL starter make it appear like Lock could only become a quality professional football player in a fantasy world.

While much of Denver hasn’t caught up to that rather glum reality, every football analyst outside of Broncos Country finds themselves in unanimous agreement that Lock is just an orange-and-blue version of Blake Bortles, more-or-less.

The latest respected analyst to pile on is ESPN’s Louis Riddick, who has worked in multiple front offices and even interviewed for a general manager job this offseason. So it’s safe to say he’s an unbiased, and highly accredited source, with an eye for scouting NFL talent.

“Drew Lock has shown he is not a guy that right now can compete with Patrick Mahomes, he is not a guy who can compete with Justin Herbert, and we don’t know how Derek Carr is going to look under Josh McDaniels at Las Vegas, but that is not how they want to go into this season and going forward at the quarterback position,” Riddick said of Lock, before explaining why Broncos Country shouldn’t put too much stock in Justin Outten’s positive remarks. “Obviously, yeah, you’re right, quarterback coaches, head coaches, offensive coordinators are going to say all the right things because they don’t know whether that guy is going to be on their team, or whether or not they are going to use them as a trade piece for the next team in order to acquire someone… so he is going to say all the positive things.”

In his introductory press conference, Outten complimented Lock’s tools and said he wanted to see more of him in this new offense. Riddick does a good job of explaining why all of that is political, and why you wouldn’t really expect Outten to say anything critical.

However, that is far from the harshest thing Riddick had to say about the Broncos’ never-ending quarterback project.

“This is a team that is set up to win,” Riddick said of Denver’s roster and the talent on it. “They have a lot of nice pieces now; you don’t want to have it all go to waste because you are sitting there, you know, selling pipe dreams about a quarterback that you know can’t get the job done. When they know that they have to make a swing, and a big swing at getting the big fish, and the big fish for this football team is that guy that we talk about who is going on 12 day cleanses.”

According to Riddick — one of the most respected minds in sports media when it comes to scouting NFL talent and, evidently, is still widely respected inside the NFL — believing in Lock is a pipe dream, and Lock is simply a quarterback that you know can’t get the job done. Riddick is a smart man with no motive to be biased against Lock, and of course, who also understands the effects a coaching staff can have on a quarterback.

Yet still, he used that aforementioned terminology.

That feels like food for thought for many in Broncos Country. That is unless the elaborate Anti-Lock conspiracy has reached ESPN, which of course, is a ludicrous belief.